Earlier this month, the peace of Battersea Park, one of London’s most cherished green spaces, was broken by the sound of electric cars speeding round a track as it played host to a two-day Formula E race.

It was the second, and final, time the park had run the event. Protests from residents about noise, disruption and damage to the park resulted in the organisers agreeing to withdraw.

Susan Lofthouse, secretary of Battersea Park Action Group, describes what it was like in the two-week run-up to the 2015 event: “There was banging and clashing from around 7.30 in the morning, often until about 10 at night. If you lived opposite the park, you couldn’t open your windows, you couldn’t sit on your little balcony. It was awful, and it smelt, because the HGVs run on diesel. It wasn’t what you would expect in a beautiful Victorian park”.

Wandsworth council, which is responsible for Battersea Park, has been hit by budget cuts, and Formula E promised to bring in much-needed revenue. But councils’ increasingly brash attempts to turn public green spaces into money-making ventures has prompted MPs on the Commons communities and local government committee to launch an inquiry this week, which also sees the start of Love Parks Week, a nationwide celebration of parks, into the impact of budget cuts on public parks. The committee has asked for contributions by the end of September on who is using Britain’s 27,000 public parks. The MPs want to know how often parks are used and how they contribute to the wellbeing of local communities. They’ll also be looking at the impact of council budget cuts on parks and how new and existing parks can best be supported.

The committee will not be short of examples of the impact of cuts and the need to bring in money from parks.

In Lancaster, the city council has for several years held fairs and circuses at Ryelands Park. But last year, says resident Kamilla Elliott, there was a change: “The events were super-sized and far longer than they’d ever been before,” she says. There’d always been an annual circus and fair in the park, and we were not opposed to that, but they’d been small-scale and in residence for five or six days. These events were in the park for up to two weeks, on a much larger scale, doing damage.” Sound meters recorded decibel levels in a range to damage hearing, she says.

Campaigners, who have just presented a 700-signature petition to the council, are particularly unhappy because they argue it flouted the terms of its own 2005 premises licence agreement for Ryelands Park, reached after an amicable discussion with local residents. (Earlier this year, the council changed the terms of the agreement).

The Ryelands Park events certainly bring in cash for the council. But is there a better way? Peter Neal, a landscape consultant and parks specialist who wrote the 2013 report Rethinking Parks (pdf) for the charity Nesta, says councils need to think more strategically about how they make money from parks. Instead of seeing parks as cash cows, he argues, they should value their broader social and environmental benefits.

The Rethinking Parks programme worked with councils to develop more innovative ways of raising money, such as Hackney’s TreeXOffice, a work pod built around a tree in Hoxton Square that can be hired as office space. Burnley’s Go to the Park project is taking an ecological approach, allowing parts of its parkland to grow wild and thinning some of the woodland to produce and sell wood fuel.

Other councils are performing a balancing act that enables people to visit parks for free, while charging for selected events and activities. Rotherham’s 60-acre Clifton Park has been helped by investments from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and now has 1.5 million visitors a year. Much of the park, including the gardens, the play area and the museum, remains free, but Andy Lee, urban green spaces manager at the council, says budgets have been hammered, and about 60% of the park’s funding now comes from paid-for activities, such as mini golf and a permanent funfair, and one-off events. These range from a “fake” festival in June (with fake U2, a fake Foo Fighters and fake Bon Jovi) to a soapbox derby to be run this September in conjunction with a local hospice.

Councils may be tempted to find more and more activities they can charge for, but, says Neal, they should remember that parks are a resource that improve everyone’s quality of life: “Parks are an incredibly important part of the fabric of local communities. We should not overlook the broader environmental and social benefits that they offer.”

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Derek Warwick, president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club which owns the circuit, was optimistic about its future as host, saying: ‘Liberty don’t want to lose Silverstone and the British Grand Prix’